Month: August 2015

Have we had enough of high rents? Enough of tall luxury condos, subsidized with tax-payer $$, jacking up property taxes? Enough of seeing our affordable stores like Pathmark shut down?Enough of our school programs and senior centers being cut?

It’s time to march to City Hall to tell Mayor de Blasio that we’ve had enough of the racist Tale of Two Cities! It’s time to assert control over our community!

Our community has worked for 7 years on a Chinatown Working Group Rezoning Plan to protect our homes, schools and small businesses. The plan puts height restrictions on buildings to discourage big, tall luxury developments. This will help keep property taxes—and our rents– from shooting up. The plan also prevents the City from selling our NYCHA buildings and using our land to build luxury apartments.

The Department of City Planning says our plan is too “far-fetched”. But the city didn’t think the plan to limit the height of buildings in the majority white East Village in 2008 was too “far-fetched”. Why can’t our community of Latinos, Chinese and blacks have equal protection from displacement? If our rezoning plan is passed, luxury developers like Extell would not be able to demolish Pathmark to build an 80-story tower with a “poor door”. If our rezoning plan is passed, NYCHA will not be sold to developers for luxury housing. If our rezoning plan is passed, our families will have a future in Chinatown and the Lower East Side. We will have the chance to improve our homes and schools, protect our small businesses and community programs.